For the 'Record' this digital tape unit is the answer to your bedroom coding retro feels!

Рет қаралды 8,734

Күн бұрын

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Shack! In this episode we're looking at this fantastic digital tape player AND recorder. Is this all you really need to get those 8 bit bedroom coding retro feels?
If you'd like to get hold of one of these - send an email to: svi_projects@protonmail.com and tell 'em I sent ya! :)
The user manual can be downloaded from:
users.tpg.com.au/romsey/SVI/SV...
Follow the shack on twitter: / scottth54604744
Support the channel: / theretroshack
Buy us a coffee: ko-fi.com/theretroshack
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:29 Overview
04:16 Navigating the machine
05:40 ZX80/81 Load Test
06:38 ZX Spectrum Load Test
07:29 ZX Spectrum Save Test!
09:57 MSX Load Test
10:47 C64 Load Test
References
github.com/sweetlilmre/tapuino
www.computinghistory.org.uk/de...
searle.x10host.com/zx80/zx80nm...

Пікірлер: 82

@merman1974 2 жыл бұрын

An interesting bit of kit, very versatile to work with so many machines.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Yes I was pleasantly surprised with how nice it is to use :)

@rockyhill3 2 жыл бұрын

I had no idea that the SVI-CAS even existed, I think I want one now.... Great review!

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! It’s a nice device :)

@frankowalker4662 2 жыл бұрын

This is the device I mentioned on one of your other videos, (Does This Monster-Mashup Deliver?). You are so lucky to have one. It's just what I need. I have a lot of 8 bit systems I write games and utilities on, some of which don't have SD card options. :)

@CoCoNutBob 7 ай бұрын

Great video! We had users report problems _saving_ to Compute Computers and I was able to get it working by adding a resistor to my Radio Shack cassette cable. Adding this resistor solved the problem for everyone who tried it, plus a different device i was previously unable to save to. 👍 I made a video. Duncan apparently told one of his customers he was going to drop CoCo support because he couldn't replicate the problem. Hope that doesn't happen, it's an easy fix.

@MatthewJohnCrittenden 2 жыл бұрын

Neat piece of kit that needs some UI refinements. In my head it was only yesterday that I was swapping C90s with my mates. Right On Commander!

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Me too! I remember having such a huge collection of tapes and lord knows what happened to them all!

@justajeffy 2 жыл бұрын

The mc-10 is a TRS-80 branded "colour computer" but not really a part of THE line of TRS-80 colour computers. SVI-CAS looks useful in either case, though.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, it's a really nice device to use :)

@paulb4uk 2 жыл бұрын

Nice bit of kit

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Yes indeed! :) Thanks for watching :)

@HypnoGenX 2 жыл бұрын

That is one sexy bit of kit.

@KJohansson 2 жыл бұрын

Informative, I will get one of these. Since many of the named machines use KCS (Kansas City Standard) so it would likely work with even more than stated here. Good work!

@jamesroberts7339 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah it has a wave file “generic mode” too so other machines can be supported, eg TI99/4A.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed the review - and yes I'm sure this works with a ton of other machines too :)

@Colin_Ames 2 жыл бұрын

Good review of an interesting device.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks - glad you enjoyed it.

@mikeuk666 2 жыл бұрын

Keep up the great work

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, will do!

@johndale5429 2 жыл бұрын

Great review, thanks. This looks just like the sort of thing that I NEED. :-))

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! It's a fabulous piece of kit! :)

@mikeuk666 2 жыл бұрын

Strange they went with the touch arrows instead of being able to touch directly on what is displayed in the menus

@IanPtv 2 жыл бұрын

It's probably a limitation of library code used to generate the user interface with only gadgets providing a touch response input.

@mikeuk666 2 жыл бұрын

@@IanPtv you only have to asign the x y coordinate data to what is entered when you tap the accept choice area

@jamesroberts7339 2 жыл бұрын

We are spoiled by phone devices these days. Basic touchscreens have accuracy issues so arrows can be a wise choice.

@stephenelliott7071 2 жыл бұрын

While I do use SD Card solutions with my retro systems, I sometimes put a cassette on for the fantastic authentic nostalgia of the loading screens on my CRT, and certainly the sounds of the Speccy...A nice solution but entering text needs addressing.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Me too, occasionally ;)

@yukisaitou5004 2 жыл бұрын

It's fairly likely the reason some machines require an out-of-phase signal is because there's an inverting amplifier in the signal path. I can only guess at why that might be, but it may have something to do with how they've implemented the analogue to digital conversion.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Wry interesting - I’ll have to look that up and have a read :)

@danaeckel5523 2 жыл бұрын

Now that is cool, add Atari XL and Apple2 and I'm sold!

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Drop Duncan a note and see if there are plans to include those in future models (or even if they might work now?)

@galamoonretrogaming 2 жыл бұрын

Nice product, want to get one now !

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Yep, it’s really nice to use and very reliable :)

@galamoonretrogaming 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRetroShack is the loading time shorter or the same from a normal tape ?

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

@@galamoonretrogaming unfortunately this will only load as fast as the individual machine’s tape loading would be.

@mistermark8755 2 жыл бұрын

cool love it :)

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

It is kinda cool :)

@BarnokRetro 2 жыл бұрын

That is a really cool device, however, while I'm nostalgic about playing games and such on my retros, I'm not nostalgic about starting a load and going to dinner while I wait! :P

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

I’m with you on that one :) Personally, I’m too old to be waiting around for stuff :) However I do recognise the charm of it all and can see how other people like it :)

@DangerousPictures 2 жыл бұрын

the UI Could use a lot of improvement. As you mentioned a better keyboard, but also the machine selection should go to a menu (like the file browser) when you tap on it and not just cycle through.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Definitely - it's the only negative comment I had on the whole device.

@steve87uk 2 жыл бұрын

From the look of the PCB that's a mini mega 2560 so may well be Arduino.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

It appears not; from the user manual: "This is not an Arduino based product and makes no use of any source code or design aspects of the known existing public domain image player projects. This product does not make use of a boot-loader. The SVI-CAS firmware and hardware design, plus fundamental operational characterisitics are alien to all existing Arduino designs."

@steve87uk 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRetroShack Strange as 3:37 looks exactly like one of these www.aliexpress.com/item/32804483834.html - they could be writing the code directly rather than with the Arduino framework but that seems like extra effort :)

@steve87uk 2 жыл бұрын

Had a look in the manual and it's exactly that I think. I wonder if that was a performance thing, or to avoid using anything open source perhaps. Who knows!

@panoc3277 2 жыл бұрын

Nice device, can't we rename tape file names once we insert the sdcard on a (current gen) pc ?

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Yes - you can do that :)

@lovemadeinjapan 2 ай бұрын

I would like to see sofware like this to run on an M5Stack, as it is better hardware-wise: it has an IPS screen in 4:3, so it can show thumbnails of programs near pixel perfect with good viewing angles, 3 buttons seem better than pen input, and it has a battery module. And it is not beeeeeiiiigggeeeee.

@Anangelspath 2 жыл бұрын

I wished I knew about this before I stuck an Android phone inside my Amstrad CPC 464, it records and plays too. Thumbs up and subscribed. It would be cool if the developer of this device could pull the "SAVE" filename as it was encoding and use that instead of having to type it in, just a thought.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Lol - at least you can recover your phone now :)

@Anangelspath 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRetroShack So true! I'm tired of holding the 464 up to my ear everytime the phone rings!

@andrewlittleboy8532 2 жыл бұрын

Without motor control feedback this device will struggle with many games on the C64 as some games start and stop very briefly upon loading and without this the game will fail to load.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

The motor control function of this works really well - no issues so far :)

@djcsdy2 2 жыл бұрын

It looks like whatever you're using to capture video is applying a ridiculously excessive sharpening filter, which would explain why all the text has a horrible white halo around it. You might want to turn the sharpness down. Preferably to zero. (or maybe that's a property of RF output and I just don't remember how bad it was?)

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Capturing from these older machines is always hit and miss, and I refuse to capture from an emulator! :) :)

@Rick_Todd 2 жыл бұрын

What about those Multi Load Games that after the main game load's in they tell you to reset the counter to zero and then continues to load the 1st level then when you make it to the 2nd level if you die it will then ask you to rewind to zero to load in the 1st level again ?

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

There’s a memory function according to the manual but to be brutally honest I didn’t look into that as I didn’t consider that scenario :)

@Rick_Todd 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRetroShack If its firmware is based on the Tapuino project then it will be no good. That's why i had to buy the Cute32 from Manosoft as you can do anything a real Datassette can do.

@rog2224 2 жыл бұрын

@@Rick_Todd Does it work with just Commodore kit?

@Rick_Todd 2 жыл бұрын

@@rog2224 Cute32 yes just commodore. they do a cut down cheaper version now as well without a fancy case. Called Core32. Both have WiFi

@rog2224 2 жыл бұрын

@@Rick_Todd Since I have no tape based Commodore kit, it's not really that useful - TI-99/4a, ZX81, and Acorn Electron are my toys. The issue with SD disk solutions is that some games converted from tape to disk image and are complex enough to need saving - Elite for the Elk, for example, - don't save reliably if it's not the right media type.

@DAVIDGREGORYKERR 2 жыл бұрын

Why could you not have used a module that can send and receive SPDIF data that can be recorded on a MAGNAVOX DCC900 Cassette Deck or for that matter can be played back into the module that will convert it back to parallel data to be loaded back into memory and then executed.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Well, you probably could :) :)

@DAVIDGREGORYKERR 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRetroShack the unit needs to convert the data words (eight bytes at a time) into a SPDIF signal that can be recorded onto any DAT or DCC tape deck which can then output the SPDIF signal back to the unit to convert back to a data words (eight bytes at a time)

@solo1870 2 жыл бұрын

Why do none of these things have rewind/fast forward or a tape counter. Some games need tape counters reset at certain points & be able to rewind to that point etc

@chrisrobson8540 2 жыл бұрын

mmmmmm load tunes 🤣🤣🤣

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

:) :)

@KolliRail 2 жыл бұрын

Nice device with awful UI. Would be great to have this as open source hardware.

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Not sure we’ll see it as open source but hopefully the UI will get a rethink at some point. Thanks for watching :)

@kibblestherexouium4775 2 жыл бұрын

I have never seen anyone call a spectrum spechi

@mikeuk666 2 жыл бұрын

Often used to hear them as a specki in the UK

@TheRetroShack 2 жыл бұрын

Speccy is the correct terminology for a ZX Spectrum in the UK :) :)

@kibblestherexouium4775 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRetroShack well, i learnt something today

@Rick_Todd 2 жыл бұрын

Yes , Speccy is a UK thing. One thing that always makes me lol is when the Americans Refer to the ZX Spectrum they pronounce it Zee Ex Spectrum. lol In the UK we say Zed Ex Spectrum.

@kibblestherexouium4775 2 жыл бұрын

@@Rick_Todd in Hungary we only use ZX Szpectrum